The Energy Crises Requires Demand Side Response That Lowers Current Loads. The Energy Crisis is upon us worldwide. For instance, the U.S. Department of Energy predicts that by 2015 there will not, on the average, be enough electric power to supply average demand in the U.S.
One of the controllable offenders is “Vampire Loads”. Also called “Wall Wart Power” or “Standby Power”, this electricity waste is estimated by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to be in excess of 100 Billion kW annually, costing over Ten Billion Dollars in wasted energy. Vampire Load producers includes cell phone chargers, lap top chargers, notebook chargers, calculator chargers, small appliances, and other battery powered consumer devices.
The U.S. Department of Energy said in 2008:
“Many appliances continue to draw a small amount of power when they are switched off. These “phantom” loads occur in most appliances that use electricity, such as VCRs, televisions, stereos, computers, and kitchen appliances. This can be avoided by unplugging the appliance or using a power strip and using the switch on the power strip to cut all power to the appliance.”
According to the U.S. Department of Energy, the following types of devices consume standby power:                1. Transformers for voltage conversion. (Including cell phone, lap top and notepad, calculators and other battery powered devices that use wall chargers).        2. Wall wart power supplies powering devices which are switched off. (Including cell phone, lap top and notepad, calculator, battery powered drills and tools, all of which have wall chargers and have either completely charged the batteries or are actually disconnected from the device).        3. Many devices with “instant-on” functions which respond immediately to user action without warm-up delay.        4. Electronic and electrical devices in standby mode which can be awakened by a remote control, e.g., some air conditioners, audio-visual equipment such as a television receiver.        5. Electronic and electrical device which can carry out some functions even when switched off, e.g., with an electrically powered timer. Most modern computers consume standby power, allowing them to be awakened remotely (by Wake on LAN, etc.) or at a specified time. These functions are always enabled even if not needed; power can be saved by disconnecting from mains (sometimes by a switch on the back), but only if functionality is not needed.        6. Uninterruptible power supplies (UPS)        
All this means that even when a cell phone, lap top or like device is completely charged, current is still flowing, but not accomplishing anything and wasting electricity. More recently manufactured devices and appliances continue to draw current all day, every day—and cost you money and add to the Energy Crisis Worldwide.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) (a division of the U.S. Department of Commerce) through its Buildings Technology Research and Development Subcommittee in 2010 stated its goals for reducing “plug loads,” stating:
“The impact of plug loads on overall consumption is quite significant. For commercial buildings, plug loads are estimated at 35% of total energy use, for residential 25%, and for schools 10%.
Opportunities for lowering plug loads include:                1) more efficient plugged devices and appliances,        2) automated switching devices that turn off unused appliances and reduce “vampire” loads from transformers and other small but always on appliances, or        3) modifying occupant behaviors.        
The DOE Level VI Energy Efficiency Regulations are set to go into effect in 2016 requiring that power supplies under 49 watts be no less than 86% efficient across all loads, and have a standby power draw of less than 100 milliwatts. The European Commission is predicting similar external power supply regulations in 2016.
One of the problems experienced by virtually all modern electronics is that power supplies, whether external or embedded “power modules”, are not energy efficient. This is true for a number of reasons, one of which dates back to 1831 when Michael Faraday invented the transformer. Transformers are inherently inefficient because, as an analog device, they can only produce one power output for each specific winding. So if two power outputs are necessary, two secondary windings are necessary. Moreover, there are often over 50 parts and pieces that are necessary to work with a transformer to create a common modern external power supply, the numbers only get somewhat lower with internal or embedded power modules. The number of parts in a power supply is inherently inefficient because current must travel in, around and through the various parts, each with different power dissipation factors; and even the circuit traces cause resistive losses creating energy waste.
Further, the way a transformer works is creating and collapsing a magnetic field. Since all of the electrons cannot be “recaptured” by the magnetic field creation/collapse, those that escape often do so as heat, which is why cell phone, lap top and tablet chargers feel warm or hot to the touch. It is also the primary reason why all consumer electronics create heat, which not only wastes energy/electricity, but causes eventual detrition through heating of other associated electronic parts.
Another inefficiency found in current electronics is the need for multiple internal power supplies to run the different parts. For instance, in the modern world power modules, MOSFETS have become a more and more important part of the “real world” interfaces in circuitry.
Metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs) enable switching, motor/solenoid driving, transformer interfacing, and a host of other functions. At the other end of the spectrum is the microprocessor. Microprocessors are characterized by steady reduced operating voltages and currents, which may be 5 volts, 3.3 volts, 2.7 volts or even 1.5 volts. In most systems the MOSFETS and microprocessors are used together or in combination to make the circuitry work. However, most often the microprocessor and the drivers for the MOSFETS operate at different voltages, causing the need for multiple power supplies within a common electrical device circuit.
A standard high-voltage NMOS MOSFET requires a driver that can deliver a gate voltage of 5-20 volts more than that rail voltage to successfully turn it on and off. In the case of turn on, there is actually a requirement that the gate driver voltage exceed the rail power to be effective. The other main function of the high-voltage MOSFET gate driver is to have a reduced input drive requirement making it compatible with the output drive capability of modern CMOS processor.
This MOSFET/driver arrangement, common in most external power supplies, like chargers, actually requires three separate power supplies. The first power supply needed is the main power rail, which is normally composed of the rectified Line voltage in the range of 127 VDC to 375 VDC supplied to the MOSFET. The second power supply needed is the 15 volts (or higher) required by the MOSFET drivers. Finally, the microprocessors require another isolated power supply for their many different and varying voltages.
A good example of the current inefficiencies and energy waste is found in a typical television, which requires as many as four to six different power supply modules to run the screen, backlighting, main circuit board, and sound and auxiliary boards. This current system requires multiple transformers and dozens of parts for each power supply needed. The transformers and the parts (including MOSFETS) multiply heat through their duplicated inefficiencies, which is one reason the back of a television is always hot to the touch. In addition, the more transformers that are needed for various power outputs, the more parts are needed, and more causation for energy waste is created.
In addition to the heat problem, the multiple transformer based power supplies all need typically from forty to sixty parts to operate, requiring dozens of parts for a typical transformer based television power supply module which increases costs and total component size while decreasing reliability. With the multiplicity of parts comes increased system resistance which ends up in wasted energy as heat.
The present invention is aimed at one or more of the problems identified above to provide better efficiencies and create more control over electrical inrush currents from rail sources.